Broken Hill - an interesting mining town

We based ourselves at the Broken Hill Outback Resort - about 20km out of Broken Hill. When we were not going to Cameron Corner, Menindee Lakes and Silverton, we explored the town.

Line of Lode miners memorial - perched high on the slag heap overlooking Broken Hill. Over 800 names are on the memorial wall with their name, age, year of accident and how they died (mine collapse, suffocation, heart attack, crushed in machinery, falling down the shafts). There is also the big red chair which I don't think you are supposed to sit on so I just stood in from to give some perspective (bit high to climb on anyway).

We joined a walking tour of the town which gave some very interesting history of mining, the beginning of BHP, the influence of unions which were really the catalyst for our 40 hour working week. We also learned about the time the war came to Broken Hill (before the bombing of Darwin) when a picnic train was ambushed by a couple of disgruntled Afghans who rolled out a Turkish flag and proceeded to shoot the passengers - 4 were killed and many were wounded. Happened on the 1st January 1915.

Art is a big part of Broken Hill. While we didn't specifically visit any galleries, we did check out Pro Hart's grave. A big slab of Granite over 4 plots etched with his signature dragonfly. Interesting fact: Pro's name is actually Kevin - Pro is short for Professor and is a nickname he got when working in the mines because he was very inquisitive.

We saw the Big Picture - world's largest acrylic painting on canvas done by one man. Almost 100m long and 12m high, it depicts all the scenes around Broken Hill.

Had lunch at Bell's 1950s Diner. Good old fashioned burgers and milkshakes with flavours like coconut rough and lemon cheesecake - a bit sweet but delicious nevertheless.

Finally we did the Living Desert where a group of sculptors from around the world worked on a large sandstone block each in situ over a period of 6 weeks. I made a stupid mistake of driving to where the sign said Sculptures walking trail and ended up walking (only about 1 km) up a mountain, only to discover when we got there that we could have driven up. Brad had pointed out there was another sign for driving access but I ignored him. The Sculptures were OK - the Aztec one the best and most commonly photographed.Baca lagi